


The Dread of Spooky High

by masterofthez



Category: Monster Prom - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:01:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25165105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masterofthez/pseuds/masterofthez
Summary: This being her first semester of Spooky High, Zoe had only ever heard of The Dread, a event where everyone at at school is washed with fear an anxiety for seemingly no reason. Now the Dread has returned to the High School, and Zoe gets to experience it first hand.
Relationships: Yellow | Oz & Z'gord | Zoe
Comments: 7
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

Zoe had never experienced The Dread before. That’s not to say she’s never experienced the feeling of dread before. She’d been reading a great fanfic before only to have it gone on hiatus 6 years ago. Or the time she tried to get send Leonard to her nightmare dimension after he was being a prick but accidentally sent Principle Giant Spider’s car there as well. Or when a noble wizard sealed her in a totem only for random people who she did not know to take the totem and think they new everything about her. All of these lead to different types of dread (although that month of detention was very much worth Leonard new fear of teeth). Despite this she had never experienced the seemingly random occurrence at Spooky High that many students and faculty called The Dread. Having never experienced it before and only hearing about it in hushed whispers, Zoe didn’t realize it had arrived once more. Although the giant circling vortex above the school along with black figures chasing terrified students probably should have clued her in that something was up (although to be completely fair, Zoe has spent an unknowable amount of time in a void before time began, millennia within her own nightmare reality, centuries sealed within a Totem, and a few months in high school as a fairly overt metaphor for a trans woman. Something had to be REALLY wrong for her to notice). In truth, it wasn’t until she arrived at lunch halfway through the day before the eldritch cutie noticed anything was up in the first place.

  
Entering the cafeteria was an odd sensation for the purple tentacle girl. Normally, the cafeteria would be filled with sounds of the screams of students who had the misfortune of being within Damien’s line of sight (truly a fate worse then death), the banter of combat between Dimitri and the Coven during their latest final battle (current final battle count: 57), and the wacky arguments she and her friends get into only to be solved by one of the Player Characters (Zoe once being a former deity and thus aware of the universe on a fundamental level seems to be the only person who understands their band name, including the members). But instead of any of that, all her fellow students where just sitting down, shaking.

  
Well, this was a problem. How on earth was she supposed to know where to sit now? Normally, she would just sit at whatever table seemed interesting in order to get ideas for her Spooky High AUs (although lately the eldritch cutie has being considering doing a bit of a role reversal and trying herself to solve problems between her classmates in order to romance them, but now might not be the best time to explore that stretch goal). With her normal idea of interest now out of the question, Zoe used a few of her spare eyes to search around the room to find anything that might be interesting in this new normal. After a minute she spots someone out of the corner of her left leg eye (it amazes Zoe that other monsters can find anything without a left leg eye). With a target in mind she walked over to the only person in the lunchroom that was not shaking in their sets.

  
“Hey Cal, What’s u-“was all she had time to say before the edged calm that had seemingly taken the world was broken.

  
“WARNING WARNING THREAT DETECTED THREAT DETECTED” Calculester stood up, faces flashing red, head spinning as sirens blazing. The lunchroom was suddenly in a panic as monsters screamed, hid under tables, and jumped out of widows. More at peace with the world now that the cafeteria was in it’s usual state of noise and terror (all be it from a fairly unusual source), Zoe sat down at the computer’s table, took out her leftover sanity and carrots, and began to patiently wait for Calculester to be ready to talk. After 10 minutes of sirens and shrieks of terror, the room finally reached a similar state to her arrival, save for the fewer people and newly broken windows. “Oh Friend Zoe, it was just you.” Calculester said with a ☹ on his face, “how are you doing today?”

  
“I’m doing fine, unlike you and what seems to be the rest of the cafeteria. Are you okay? What’s happened? Something in the food?” She reaches her hand out in order to try and comfort he automated friend only to have him jump in response and bend away from her. She tried not to take it personally.

  
“Sorry Friend Zoe. I am feeling very cautious today.” The ☹ has not felt his face, and while he was not visibly shaking like the rest, he did speak with studder. How did that even happen? Did he divide by zero again? No, it couldn’t be that. He’s not currently dancing. “I think my worry and fear along with the rest of the student body is being caused by the Dread.” Calculester explained.

  
“Wait, that thing that apparently happened a lot last semester?” She looked around the room taking that in, “Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Well cool, I guess I can write some fics about it from a first-hand experience now!” Taking out her journal for notes, she stops as another question enters her mind, “Wait, so if the current mood is caused by a lot of fear and dread, those are largely biological in nature. How are you affected by this?”

  
“While it is true that my current chasey does not have the ability to produce the chemicals that most biological life produces to get fear, I still have the able to determine what would be bad for me like jumping from a high place, getting soaked in water, or magnets. This is similar to the fear that most monsters have, however my fears and logical understandings have always been lined up to each other. Currently my warnings are far greater then my logic says they are. Also, I have now developed new fears, like pubic speaking and llamas. While the idea of having irrational fears like my friends interests me because it makes me feel more alive, this is very inconvenient today as I have a presentation next class-OH GOD I HAVE A PRESENTATION NEXT CLASS DANGER DANGER!” And the lunchroom erupted into chaos once more. This time however it didn’t die down.

  
As the panic echoed through the large room, new guests arrived into the cafeteria. Seemingly unbound by anything, large black formless specters came in through the windows, doors, walls, floor and ceiling. No one seemed to notice them as they flew around the rooms and into people. First one she noticed was Dahlia who suddenly screamed, “Oh no! Germs are everywhere! I need to wash my everything.” A cacophony of panic followed.

  
“Oh no shattered glass! I can’t be in a room with that!”, “The heat death of the universe will happen eventually!”, “I’ve wasted so much of my life, I need to buy a car right now!”, “Our Principle is literally a giant spider! Why is that even a thing?!” A shadow entered Zoe as well, and while she did for a moment get an uncomfortable feeling about Non-Euclidean geometry, she shrugged it off. Calculester was not so lucky however as he ran away saying something about how if he didn’t get to next class at least thirty minutes early he’d die. And so with no one to talk to, she just ate lunch in boredom. Although the endless screams did make her feel nostalgic for her time as a tormentor of souls. Maybe she’d spend her summer recapturing those good old days (then again Liam was talking about going to Japan over the summer. That might be too good to miss).

  
Next class was interesting to say the least. Zoe assumes that Ms. Buzz-Buzz has developed a fear of bees. Given the fact that she is a sentient swarm of bees, has lead to this image of all the bees flying next to each other so they don’t have to look at each themselves and thus be terrified. Beyond that it wasn’t until her next class in World Catastrophes 102 (her least favorite class sense it had a chapter on her, but back when she was called Z’gord). Currently Mr. Slenderman seems to have developed a horrible fear of water and is currently lecturing the class in all the ways that water is horrible and terrible while occasionally teleporting away when he sees a student drinking a water bottle. What sucks is that everyone is still in this tired and terrified state, so Zoe has no one to talk to during class. No text messages. No whispers. Not even the classic note passing. Not even the normal wacky hijinks that she’s come to love. This whole ‘everyone is afraid thing’ was amusing for a bit, but now it’s just getting in the way. And if Zoe is the only person who is immune to whatever is causing this, then it’s up to her to stop it. First she would-

  
“Now, to end the class,” Mr. Slenderman began, interrupting Zoe’s plan of action. “I was going to have a student presentation today, but sense Oz isn’t here today-” And Zoe stopped paying attention. She turned her head to confirm it and there was the proof. Oz wasn’t here. And then it clicked.

  
That’s it! It all makes sense. The black shadows, the incredible sense of fear, the structure of reality bending (which now that Zoe thought of it was probably something she should have took notice of before now, but the narrator didn't mention it so it's not really Zoe's fault), and him not being in class. Oz is doing this, but why was Zoe’s question. Sure, they were known to have a bit of a bold streak in them. After all Zoe still remembers when moments after being released from her totem, Oz asked her to prom last semester. But that was in large part an outlier. Oz was typically just a nice, albeit timid and shy, monster. This just didn’t seem right. And this had interrupted her ability to get useful research notes for her fic. Whatever he was doing, it has to stop.

  
With resolution in mind, Zoe stood up in class suddenly, causing a gasp in fear from her teacher and classmates. She used her many senses to feel out the whole school until she found him. In the library. Far back corner. The avid writer left the classroom without any regard for her very obviously skipping class and made her way to her destination to one of the highest points in the school.

  
On the way there she encountered Damien huddled in the hallway being cornered by a mop that Crazy Martin the Were-Bear Janitor probably left there earlier. She also saw Polly going in and out of a wall over and over again seemingly being both afraid of open and enclosed spaces at once. Well, these observations seemed to rule out her biggest ideas as to who convinced Oz to do this. The eldritch cutie almost stopped to help them, but continued on figuring that stopping Oz would be the most effective way to help. Although a large part of her mostly just wanted to figure out what is going on. Why would usually sweat and reserved Oz do this if not by the prompting of one of the prank masterz or the force that is Damien?

  
Once making it to the top of the stairs, the silence was deafening. This was not like the quite of the cafeteria from earlier where the quite was accompanied by a nervous tension. There was just no one here. No librarian telling students to study. No students trying to get rich quick through the internet. No one was here, and even Zoe could feel why. This place made her nervous. Now, the rational part of her mind new that nothing here could hurt her. She was far too tough for most anything this dimension could through at her. But that horrible sense of terror and dread that the whole school had felt all day, this close to the source even the eldritch deity who ate sanity and has lived sense before anything was beginning to get a chill up her spine. Still she was tougher then that, and she marched on to the very back.

  
Once she got there, Zoe did not see Oz on a throne laughing or in a magic circle chanting as darkness flowed (although Zoe was a little bummed about that. It would have been hot seeing her fellow dork so confident and powerful). Even the sense of fear left once she reached the corner of the library almost as if she reached the eye of the storm. No, what she saw made her far more concerned. Sitting in the corner, on the ground crying was Oz in his normal yellow but currently very messed up cardigan. No chair under him, legs in his arms. His breathing is heavy, and he is muttering something that Zoe can’t pick up. At witnessing it, all of Zoe’s previous thoughts left her. All ideas she had about how he was hurting people, getting in the way of her writing, and missed his presentation in 5th all went into her own void, and was replaced with one thought.

  
‘Oh no. Oz is having a panic attack!’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've been playing a lot of Monster Prom ever sense it came out on the Switch. This was one of the outcomes. I might post a few of the others later along the line. Now, I am not a creative writer by nature. This is also the first fan fiction I've written sense 2013 if my FF account is of any indication. I write all this to say, feel free to be critical, but be kind please. I may be an adult, but I'm a sensitive one.


	2. Hurt/Comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoe finds Oz in distress and tries her best to help.

Watching the embodiment of fear trebling in it was a sight of great concern for Zoe. It’s not as if his normal humanoid form was melting into a grotesque nightmare only imaginable by the unwell. In truth, he looked just like his normal humanoid self, but curled up in a ball. No, what made Zoe worry was the fact that this was very real. She knew on some level that the fear the rest of the school wasn’t really theirs. The shadows entering their bodies was the most direct evidence of that fact, but she had seen people afraid of her for most of her existence. She knew fear. And she knew Oz. His shaking was the only one who the terror was coming from inside their own head.

The fearling’s face hadn’t moved to face Zoe yet. If they knew she was here, he gave no acknowledgement. She took a deep breath. She did this for two reasons. The first was to let him know she was here without causing to much of a panic if he hadn’t noticed. The gasp, sudden eye contact, and then equally sudden lack of eye contact told her that the first part was a success. The second reason was to center herself. She needed to be calm for what was to come next. She put a soft smile on. 

“Hey Oz. I noticed you weren’t in class today, so I came looking for you.” Zoe squatted down, making sure she was eye level. No point in getting him too worked up. “Why are you in here all by yourself?” Oz doesn’t respond, just looks up at her again. She fights back the instanced to ask if he was okay. Obviously, he wasn’t, and she didn’t want Oz to think she unreceptive to his feelings. No, that question would be saved for later. Instead she tried a different approach. 

“Do you want to leave the room? Some place you’d prefer to be?” She said after a pause. It’s important for Oz to know he has control in this situation. 

“No!... I-I don’t know what’s out there...” Good he’s will to talk, if only a little, now affirm his decision.

“That’s fine. If you don’t feel comfortable outside this room, we don’t have to go anywhere.” She said trying to sound as warm as possible. She paused, letting Oz make any comment he had, another thought came to Zoe, “Do you want me to leave?” 

“No!” He said suddenly before retreating back into his ball, “No, please…don’t leave me alone.” 

“Then don’t worry. I won’t go anywhere unless you change your mind.” He might have said thank you, but it was more into his arm then at her. Which was fine. A minute passed of just silence with Oz occasionally looking up to see if Zoe was still there. She always was. After nothing else was shared she decided to take another step forward. “Would you be okay if I came closer?” with a nod she crawled over sitting on the ground next to him leaning against the wall. 

“I know what your experiencing is horrible right now, so just let me know if you need anything from me.” And that is where she left it. He only nodded in response. It didn’t feel right yet. It was great that he was willing to have someone here, but Oz had been simmering for hours now if the whole day was of any indication. The purple girl needed to do more. She looked at him running one last idea in her head to see if she should do it. Gaining resolution, she took a gamble. 

Zoe rapped her tentacle limb around Oz and pulled him in. He jumped for a second, but he embraced it just as quickly setting Zoe’s own mind at ease. No one else was around. She didn’t have to whisper, but this was just for him all the same, “I know this is hard, but please know that you are safe, and that these feelings won’t last. And I won’t leave until you are ready.” At first there was nothing, no words, no shakes, no moment at all. Then a few tears came out. And they only escalated from there. 

“It’s…It’s j-just so hard some days!” Zoe didn’t ask what it was. That wasn’t really important to her, and even if it was she doubt she would be able to fully understand anyway. Maybe she’ll ask later when he’s feeling better, but now wasn’t the time. All that was important now is that he was in pain and afraid. Nothing else mattered to Zoe right now except him. So she let him cry, and say any broken idea he had. She just kept quite with one arm wrapped around him to give him some support. Zoe even gave him her hand so they’d have something to hold. Eventually the tears did stop, but they didn’t stop their embrace. It wasn’t until she was sure that he didn’t want to say anything that she finally said something new.

“So”, pausing for effect and to allow a mischievous smile to grow on her face, “guess what I got?”

“W-what?” they said making the first direct eye contact in a while. 

“Over the weekend, I found a Samantha Patel.” She said with a chuckle. Oz’s eyes went wide. 

“No way. Scott has been looking for a Samantha Patel for ages! Have you told him yet?” energy is returning to his voice; all be it in a similar soft tone that he usually employs. 

“Nope. I was going to show him during our normal Tag Tax battle this weekend.”

“That’s so mean.”

“Not as mean as it’s going to be when we whoop their asses. You still have that Samuel Palmer, right? If you use him then with our Sam nickname bonus, Scott and Damien don’t stand a chance.” At this Oz laughs. Zoe smiles even brighter at this. Light conversation, that how best to end these sorts of moments. It’s always a good transition away. The laughter died, but the quiet that followed was far more pleasant. For a little bit they simply embraced each other in the quite of the library.

‘ _Now is a good time to ask’_

“How are you feeling?” She says with a smile on her face. Still warm and welcoming, but not as soft as it was before. 

“…I think I should call my parents. See if one of them can pick me up.” He talked, he laughed, and he was ready to leave. His voice was soft and his body was still reserved, but Zoe still felt this was a win in her books. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I don't think the cause of Oz's Panic Attack is really important. I think what matters is that Oz was in pain and Zoe was there to help. Zoe may have also been a bit OOC for how she approached Oz and how calm she is. Aside from the reason I give in text next chapter, I think Zoe would herself deal with anxiety herself given how often she is harassed for who she is in her secret endings. So I think she'd have a lot of empathy and understand for someone else experiencing the same thing. Also in the end they are talking about Pokemans which Damien, Scott, Zoe, and [Insert Player Character Name Here] all play in game.


	3. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And Oz's dad comes.

After a short phone call, Oz said his dad was coming to pick him up. So they waited outside by the road for his ride to arrive. Zoe was a little annoyed that they were currently still skipping class, but not getting any +Boldness from doing so. Maybe it was something to do with the bathroom itself? Oh well. Questions for later. For the moment, Zoe was content with making light conversation with Oz. But eventually that moment faded when an old beat up car that could have been right out of the 1960s drove up to them. What was truly bizarre however was when the driver stepped out to show that he was a human man. And as if the universe said “you want to see something really crazy” to Zoe, he looked exactly like Oz. In truth the only thing separating the two is that this human was a few inches taller than Oz, and he didn’t have shadows making up his body. Even their sweat vests were the same color and style (laying the family relation on a bit thick here really). Despite the obvious similarities however, Zoe still had this feeling that he’d met him sometime before. Maybe at a play after party?

“Hey Ozzy, I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner. Would you believe I actually left my keys in one of the CPUs that I was working on? I literally had to bust into someone’s office and destroy their computer to get at it” Oz chuckled at that. Zoe on the other hand was just stunned. 

This person was Oz’s dad, right? How could an embodiment of fear have a human as a parent? Was he adopted? That was one option, but the resemblance was truly uncanny between them. Then again, Oz’s form was semi-malleable. Zoe had seen the fearling taking on the form of his bandmates before to entertain them. Maybe he just decided to embody this man who raised him. But how would an adoption like that even work? And how would a biological connection work for that matter? And did Zoe even want to know? All of these could lead to so many interesting fic with every implication. The eldritch cutie had to fight not reach into her bag to draft some ideas. 

“Well, don’t worry dad, I’m fine. My friend was here to keep me company,” Oz motioned to Zoe, who was seemingly noticed for the first time during the father-son exchange. 

“Oh hey, long time no see, how have you been? I don’t think I’ve seen you sense the big bang party.” And then it clicked in her head.

“Oh yeah, I remember you. You’re the guy that invented time travel then accidentally got stuck in the unknowable void before time began.” Honestly, how could she forget him. Only a handful of people excited before the start of time. The fact that he showed up at all should have been enough to keep him ingrained in her mind. Then again, she had spent a lot of her time to a fanfic shared multiverse. Less important things must have been pushed out to make room. 

“Yep, that’s me. Good to see you again Z’gord. Oh wait, sorry. My son tells me you go by Zoe now right?” She nodded, realizing another detail from long ago. 

“Didn’t you go crazy?”

“Yep, but as it turns out if endless nothing drives you insane, it will eventually drive you sane…Very sane” He gives a far off look at that final ominous tone before shaking it of with a smile and elbowing Oz, “After all, I’d have to be in order to still be talking after the sex the led to this champ.” Well, about half of her ideas might need the AU tag on them now. Oh well. Glancing over as Oz, Zoe could see he was less interested in the fic ramifications of the conversation. 

“Oh my god! Dad! Can we not talk about this?!” He just laughed. 

“Well, regardless, thank you for looking after my son. I know it can be difficult to help, but thanks for sticking with him.” Oz’s blush continues but he doesn’t really respond. Zoe does, putting a hand on his shoulder. 

“I’m just wanted to help. Oz is a great guy. He’s been there for me more times than I can count. I’m just returning the kindness” Oz’s dad gives them a cock-eyed smile. 

“Well that’s good. The only friends of Ozzy I’ve met are the ones in his band. Nice to know he has more good friends then just those three.” Zoe couldn’t help but blush as she felt a rush of vindication for spending so much time looking up information on panic attacks for her fics. With final goodbyes and an hug shared between classmates, Oz and his father left Zoe on the side of the road. With a smile on her face, she turned around and went back in. 

* * *

As Zoe walked back into the school, she saw fire had engulfed the hallways. Through the cracking flames, she heard Damian yell, “DEATH TO ALL MOPS!” 

…Well, Zoe had already done her good deed of the day. This was someone’s else problem. (That someone turned out to be Amira who suggested burning all the cleaning supplies. It was truly Crazy Martin’s worst nightmare. Some say you can still hear his cries if you light a broom ablaze)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally had a scene in the car driving off that was some Zoe x Oz teasing, but I felt it didn't really fit with the rest of the moment. Rereading this, I thought just having a friend be wiling to help without the promise of a relationship later was a better send off in general. And sense I only really had that scene there in the first place because Zoe x Oz is my favorite ship in the game, I decided just to cut it.
> 
> But aside form that, I hope you call enjoyed my first steep into fan fiction in a really long time. And remember go, put Monster Camp on your steam wish list so it can circulate better when it actually comes out.


End file.
